


Through the Veil

by RodeoNightmare



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, I'm Bad At Tagging, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Short Chapters, Slow To Update, Spoilers for all of amnesty basically, TAZ - Freeform, TAZ Amnesty, Tags May Change, The Adventure Zone: Amnesty, a lot of this is from barclay's pov, but specifically spoilers for Episode 26, no beta we die like giraffes, sorry :(, whoo boy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21731860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RodeoNightmare/pseuds/RodeoNightmare
Summary: Kepler is ready.Ready to fight and defend their homes, their families.Ready to take back what’s theirs.People don’t normally listen to Ned Chicane of all people, but they’ve seen enough to know what he says is true.They’re prepared for war and as far as they’re concerned, they’re gonna win.Kepler is ready, but Sylvain?Sylvain is not.
Relationships: Barclay & Mama (The Adventure Zone), Barclay/Agent Stern (The Adventure Zone), Dani/Aubrey Little
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. There's really no escape

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title from Outrunning Karma by Alec Benjamin

Amnesty Lodge was calm. 

Or at least as calm as it could be right now. 

Things had been considerably tense lately, what with a shape-shifting abomination on the loose. It’s hard to find moments of peace when anyone around you could be a quell fueled abomination, set on killing whatever it can get its hands on. God what Barclay wouldn't give to be chased around by the FBI again instead of having to deal with whatever this bullshit is.

Actually, that’s not much better, maybe he’ll just stick to murderous shape-shifters.

With everything going on in Kepler, the Lodge’s secret was getting harder to keep day by day. Even without an abomination running loose, knowledge of Sylvain was becoming more and more common. With the amount of chaos that had become far to frequent for Barclay's liking, things went wrong whether an abomination was involved or not. Mind you, it didn't exactly help that Aubrey somehow managed to bring Deputy Dewey back directly in front of an FBI agent, which honestly really shouldn’t be possible, but then again the fact that Aubrey even had magic to begin with shouldn't be possible, so all bets are off the table. 

He’d have to ask her about that later though.

The cherry on top of this misery sundae was that Mama’s laptop had recently gone missing. That alone was pretty concerning, considering the majority of the notes they keep on the abominations (or at least those not made by Thacker) currently reside within that laptop. If someone unsavory got their hands on that laptop things could go from very bad to much much worse.

The point is, it had been a rough couple of days.

Duck, Aubrey, and Ned had all left a short while ago, leaving the lodge to, what had so far been a rather calm evening. It was odd, that of all times for the lodge to be calm like this, it would be in such a ridiculously awful situation, but hey, Barclay wasn’t complaining.

Moira was at the piano, playing a piece she had recently composed, which he only knew because it was the only thing she’d been playing for the past week, and Jake was trying to teach Dr. Harris Bonkers some “sick ass tricks” while Dani sat nearby reading, most likely just there to make sure he didn’t accidentally kill Aubrey’s rabbit. 

Not long ago Mama had gone back into her office, the sound of her TV just barely audible. Knowing her it was probably just there as background noise while she did something else, like Sudoku, or carving, or, in this case probably searching for her suddenly missing laptop. 

Barclay himself was cooking dinner, which tonight was chili and cornbread. Easy enough to make, but delicious nonetheless. He figured some comfort food would help soothe people's nerves after recent events.

For the first time in the last few days, there was peace.

All of which was shattered when Mama’s office door slammed open to the tune of “-FUCKING BASTARD!”.


	2. Mama we're all gonna die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all better know what the chapter title is from
> 
> (It's from Mama by MCR)

Mama came barrelling out of her office, disrupting the peaceful evening. She moved to the nearest closet, which Barclay knew to house most of the lodge’s outdoor gear and began furiously rummaging through it, loudly muttering to herself the whole time.

In all the time that Barclay's known Mama, he's never known her to be an angry person. Grumpy, sure, but not angry, despite the gruff demeanor she tends to wear. He's always known her to be kindhearted no matter what her words and face may sometimes display. 

He has never seen her as angry as she is now.

Fearing for what could have set her off to this degree, Barclay hesitantly stepped out of the kitchen.

“-swear to god if he shows his face I’m gonna-”

“Mama?” 

“-gotta get to the archway-”

“Mama!” 

“-have to hurry or-"

“MADELINE!”

“WHAT BARCLAY?” Mama snapped, turning around to face Barclay.

“What in the hell is going on?”

Mama paused what she was doing and sighed, crossing her arms before addressing Barclay. ”Ned, that bastard, decided to hop his ass on TV and tell everyone everything, and now I gotta figure out what the fuck to do.”

Barclay froze. He didn’t have to look around him to know he wasn't the only one.

Everything? She can’t mean- he wouldn’t, would he?

Ned- Ned was his friend. He was a friend to all of them. For him to suddenly turn his back on them after everything, after months of time together, after abominations upon abominations.There's no way.

Mama has to be joking.

She has to be.

Right?

Maybe...maybe everything means something else? 

It has to, or everyone currently seeking safety in the lodge is in danger.

Barclay’s just about to ask her when Dani does it for him, book now forgotten.

“By everything, do you mean-”

“The Archway? The existence of Sylvain? If that’s what you’re asking then yeah, everything, but he didn’t say much else, not including his propaganda bullshit.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed Dani.” 

“How do we fix it?” Jake asked, still sitting on the floor, now with Aubrey’s rabbit in his lap. He's looking much younger than he should, with a fear in his eyes that Barclay hasn’t seen since Jake first arrived at the Lodge. 

A fear that he’s certain is running through all of them right now.

“Well, for starters, we-”

Before Mama could continue, she’s interrupted by the sound of rapid footsteps descending the lodge's stairs

“Is everything okay? I heard yelling.”

There, at the bottom of the steps, stood Agent Stern in pajama pants and a backwards T-shirt, hair wet and dripping, glasses crooked, and holding a gun, looking incredibly concerned. 

In their panic, they had all forgotten that the man who was after them, him specifically, was just upstairs and definitely within hearing range to hear the yelling that had taken place just moments before. 

Now that Barclay was thinking about it, wasn't Stern's room above Mama's office?

Well, fuck.

“Uh, yeah, um, everything's fine, just a minor disagreement. Sorry if we bothered you.” Barclay managed to stumble out, despite the combination of fear, panic, and general flustered-ness he was currently running on.

Stern lowered the gun he was holding and adjusted his glasses before looking at Barclay with a combination of suspicion, concern, and something else he couldn't place.

"Do people typically call each other fucking bastards in minor disagreements? I don’t want to intrude, but frankly, I’m concerned. Are you sure everything’s fine?”

Fuck, he had heard that.

“It’s nothing, I promise! I’m sure you know how easily stupid disagreements can get out of hand.” 

Stern sighed and tucked the gun into his pocket before looking back at Barclay.

“Alright...” 

Although Stern by no means looked like he believed him, he hesitantly backed off.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Barclay thought it was sweet that he cared. Though they weren't necessarily close, Barclay would at least consider them friends. The quiet kitchen conversations in the dead of night that had now become commonplace made sure of that. Even though he refused to accept it, Barclay wished they could be closer. Unfortunately, his own fear stopped him from going any further than the slowly cultivated, yet still somewhat tentative friendship they currently had. If Stern found out who he was, hell, who anyone in the lodge was, what they had would be over and Barclay would be back at square one, this time equipped with a broken heart.

“I- uh, I suppose I'll be going back to my room then. Goodnight everyone.”

Barclay was snapped out of his thoughts by Stern’s voice. When he looked up, he came face to face with that same mix of emotions he had seen on Stern's face moments before, now with reluctance and just a general awkwardness added to it.

“Oh, yeah, Um, sleep well?”

Nice one Barclay. Real smooth.

With a final glance at Barclay, and a quick nod to the rest of the residents in the lobby, Agent Stern finally ascended the stairs. The residents of Amnesty Lodge let out a breath of relief once they had heard Stern's door close upstairs.

(Barclay thought he heard light footsteps near the stairs soon afterward, but he brushed it off as paranoia. He had a lot of that after all.)

The lodge was still for a moment before Dani abruptly broke the silence.

“So are we gonna talk about whatever the fuck that was or are we just supposed to ignore it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all!
> 
> Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, I didn't get a chance to work on it for a while there!  
> (Also sorry it's so short again, I'm not great at lengthy chapters ;-;)
> 
> Thanks for reading!!! I enjoy all of your lovely comments and kudos, as well as any other feedback you have to give me!!
> 
> Feel free to yell at me on tumblr/twitter, or follow my twitter for occasional shitposting and fic updates! 
> 
> (www.artfullyazi.tumblr.com/@ArtfullyAzi)

**Author's Note:**

> uhhhh so I wanna update this as often as possible, but I don't know if I'll be able to write anything until finals are done with. After then I'll figure out an update schedule. (Also the rest of the chapters should be longer, i just really liked where this one ended, think of it like trailer for the rest of the fic!)
> 
> ALSO I ENDED UP RE-FORMATTING THIS CHAPTER SO HOPEFULLY IT READS BETTER NOW
> 
> (if anybody wants to beta for me i'll actually marry you)
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> 💖 💖 💖 💖 💖


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